1.2: Happiness Agenda

HAPPINESS AGENDA OVERVIEW

Guided by the vision of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Smart Dubai is fueling a citywide transformation to happiness powered by technology innovation. To guide our journey, we have formulated and adopted a globally unique, science-based, and methodical approach to achieving our goal – the Happiness Agenda.

Through the Happiness Agenda, we seek to measure, impact, and sustain happiness for Dubai. The Happiness Agenda is built on an aligned framework designed to discover, imagine, and plan for a future that prioritises happiness. The Happiness Agenda will benefit from access to innovative technology and a broad partnership network through Smart Dubai, achieving a unified approach which utilizes the best tools we have at our disposal.

The Happiness Agenda will pursue an objective, scientific approach to influencing happiness for the whole city. Four strategic objectives are outlined in the Happiness Agenda. These four portfolios include; discover, change, educate, and measure.

Discover

The first portfolio in the Happiness Agenda is the ‘Discover’ portfolio, which is geared towards ensuring clear and shared understanding amongst stakeholders. The essence of this portfolio is to discover rather than assume facts and concepts that lie at the heart of subsequent activities. This will result in enhancing the efficiency and chances of success of these activities.

Change

The second portfolio in the Agenda is the change portfolio. This is the portfolio that is primarily responsible for creating change in Dubai with regards to Happiness. This change will be guided through the development of a Happiness Experience (HX) strategy, as well as introducing policies and associated awards that encourage activities and services that enhance happiness in public and private sectors.

Educate

The third portfolio in the Agenda is educate. Implementing education is an important part of increasing happiness in Dubai is to create awareness, train and educate customers and organization with regards to happiness activities and its culture. This will be done by disseminating relevant content and delivering events that promote such understanding. Such activities will be undertaken with partners in various sectors, as well as positioning Dubai as an international thought leader in the science and practice of happiness.

Measure

The fourth and final portfolio in the Agenda is measure. In order to ensure efficient and effective delivery of programs within the Happiness Agenda, it is important to sustain ongoing measurements of key aspects of happiness and customer needs in private and public sectors. We will conduct regular assessments of happiness in Dubai, as well as assessing the effectiveness of the framework within the agenda itself. Findings from the measurement portfolio will be used to continuously refine our approaches under Discover, Educate and Change.